Whale Rock
Blasting of the rocking waves,
a suggestive hiss of volcanic steam–
the first sign. We point, wait…
has the long-feared earthquake arrived?
Then the surface of the sea cracks
open with gasps: surely this
is the seabed itself, thrusted
skyward by a tectonic fist
rolling around in the water
in a barnacled lump of softened
rock smoothed over centuries
of subjunctive rubbing. As quickly
as it rose, the sea bed slice sinks
back down again to the bottom,
bubbling back into geology,
leaving a tsunami of wonderment.
Matthew James Friday has had many poems published, including, recently: Borderless (India), Acta Victoriana (Canada), and Into the Void (Canada). The mini-chapbooks All the Ways to Love, Waters of Oregon and The Words Unsaid were published by the Origami Poems Project (USA).
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